Sunday, September 30, 2007

Rain rain go away ...

After a week's work my friends decided to do some shopping, window shopping.... I decided to join in as one of my friends promised to get me my long pending birthday gift. It was made very clear to me that this was my last chance to choose a gift and if miss i have to wait for another year... Baap re!! Another 365+ days to wait (I don't get my birthday gifts on the D day..so it is 365+) it sounded like some decades and I decided to join. Now who will say no to gifts :)

We got down and i paid the auto guy in coins. He gave me a weird look, thinking i treated him like a beggar. I had no such intentions, so gave him a warm smile and walked away. We walked in and out of shops trying out various things till we entered the last one and found exactly what i wanted. Alas! They had only one color in that model. The thought of 365+ days combined with tiredness helped me in making a quick decision. I told my friends that i would take this. It was good, just that silly me can't buy without seeing a thousand varieties of the same.

The best part was when it came to the payment. The guy charged some 8% extra for the card payment as my friend did not have cash. I jumped in a paid for my own gift :) What a way of getting gifts.

We finally pulled our weary legs out of the place to head home. There was some cool breeze and soon the sky started blessing us with water droplets. Yep, with the drizzle started the trouble. We waited in the pre-paid counter for the autos. If there is one place on earth where you can see the most arrogant and indisciplined people, it must be those auto walas who stay just a few feet away from the pre-paid counter. Why will they come to the pre-paid stand especially when it rains?? They would miss a huge earnings if ever they were to come that side.

The rain started pouring, no place to take shelter. Me and my friend stood on the pavement with our backs facing the wall. We were waiting for those traffic police to help the crowd in getting autos. No way on earth are they going to move an inch. They happily sat inside the counter and had fun talking to each other. There were 4 well built men with rain coats and caps. We waited and waited and there was no sign of help.

I saw everyone waiting there and no one even went asked the traffic police for help. I had no option but to remind them of their duties. I knocked at the counter and politely asked if they could call the autos which were parked far from the stand. The police guyz replied saying it is raining heavily and they will not be able to go and call. Of what use will the rain coat and cap be if they can't go in the rain. Here none of us had an umbrella and were getting wet and those guy had everything to protect them did not want to go.

Another 15 minutes and nothing happened. My anger was reaching its limits and i went and asked again. What can you expect from a bunch of lazy people - only unreasonable reasons. Me and my friend realized that there is no use waiting here. So, we moved from there trying to find an auto ourselves. Nothing worked out. The rain showed all its strength and made us dripping wet from head to toe.

What i don't understand is why people can't do their jobs, specially the ones who are trained to help people in trouble? I went again to the counter and this time i asked the police for the complaint number. My friend was little stunned. I almost dialed 100 and was about to press the call button when i saw the coy girl in me peep out and tell me - 'Try and reach home first. You don't even know how to speak Kannada, what will you talk to those bunch of irresponsible people. You better reach home safely.' Immediately i heard my friend saying the same thing.

Also, I realized no one around me did anything that i did. None of them even wanted to ask the police something. All this set me thinking and there came a bus which could drop me close to home. We boarded the bus and in sometime i reached home with those thoughts getting wiped off my mind.

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